A new survey by the Coalition for a Drug-Free Greater
Cincinnati found that local teenage marijuana use is up slightly. Mary
Haag, president and CEO of the coalition, says it’s the organization’s
biggest concern — makes sense considering the organization is dedicated
to creating a drug-free Cincinnati, but shouldn’t someone be concerned
about this, too?

Cincinnati police will stop using a certain breathalyzer machinedue
to a recent court ruling that the machine must be cleared after
each use. City Prosecutor Charlie Rubenstein says attorneys are
consistently questioning in court the Intoxilyzer 8000’s use,
causing a backload of cases.

In response to heated negotiations over the price of Viacom networks such as Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central, DirecTV
this week told its users where to find Viacom content online for free (Viacom's website).
Viacom yesterday shut down the free streaming shows, replacing them with
a video explaining how to complain to DirecTV that SpongeBob SquarePants isn’t available and your kids are pissed.

Someone really smart in Todd Portune’s office warned his
or her superiors that the monthly first-Wednesday siren test might scare
the living hell out of tens of thousands of foreign people visiting
Cincinnati for the World Choir Games, so there will be no siren test
this month.

Anderson Cooper publicly announced that he’s gay after a discussion with friend
and journalist Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Beast regarding celebrities
coming out. Cooper emailed Sullivan about the matter and gave him
permission to print it.

“I’ve also been reminded recently that while as a society
we are moving toward greater inclusion and equality for all people, the
tide of history only advances when people make themselves fully visible.
There continue to be far too many incidences of bullying of young
people, as well as discrimination and violence against people of all
ages, based on their sexual orientation, and I believe there is value in
making clear where I stand.

“The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.”

The NFL is going to back off some of its local blackout
rules. Teams now must only hit 85 percent of their ticket sales goal
rather than 100 percent to avoid making local markets watch crappy
regional games instead of their favorite teams. That means more Bengals games, less crappy Browns broadcasts.

The second day of the Jerry Sandusky
sexual abuse trial continues today, with a second accuser expected to
testify. In his opening statement, Sandusky's lawyer questioned the
credibility of the eight young men accusing him of multiple crimes
over several years, claiming that they have a financial motive to
make false claims. He also acknowledged that Sandusky's behavior and
his showering with young boys was “kind of strange” but said it
was not sexual abuse.

It
starts with an attempt to undercut Romney. As a corporate buyout
executive, Romney shipped jobs overseas and reaped millions of
dollars in fees from takeover deals that destroyed U.S. factory jobs,
the Obama campaign says. As Massachusetts governor, Romney built a
poor record on job creation, the argument continues.

Turning
to his own record, Obama tells voters that he inherited an economy on
the brink of collapse and averted a depression. He takes credit for a
resurgence in manufacturing, the rescue of the automobile industry
and the creation of more than 4 million jobs since February
2010.

Obama also slams Republicans in Congress for blocking his plans to stimulate more jobs. To
inoculate himself from potential setbacks over the summer and fall,
he warns of economic trouble spilling over from Europe.

In the
end, Obama says, he would keep the country moving forward while
Romney would take it back to the George W. Bush policies that wrecked
the economy in the first place.

Verizon is changing up its cell phone
plans, moving toward monthly plans that allow users to connect up to
10 devices, including tablets and PCs, to their cell phone network.

Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel has returned
more than $100,000 in campaign contributions in response to an FBI
investigation into 21 donors who had no record of giving to federal
campaigns and many appearing to have low incomes. Mandel, a
Republican, is running against incombent Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Mandel's campaign treasurer Kathryn Kessler sent a letter to donors
explaining that any contributions appearing to be under investigation
would be refunded.

From The Toledo Blade:

Although the campaign provided a copy of the letter to The
Blade, it would not explain the timing of the decision or how long it
has been aware of the federal probe.

The Blade revealed the unusual pattern of contributions in
August.

The company's owner, Benjamin Suarez, and 16 of his employees
(plus some of their spouses) gave about $200,000 to Mr. Mandel and
U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci (R., Wadsworth) last year. Each of those donors
gave $5,000, the maximum allowable amount, to one or both candidates.

The Ohio Senate yesterday passed new
fracking regulations, and the final version caused some environmental
organizations to change their stance on the bill. The Ohio
Environmental Council and the Sierra Club had both been neutral on
the legislation until changes were made forcing anyone suing over
chemical trade secrets to show current or potential harm, according
to The Enquirer. The regulations are part of Kasich's new energy bill
and easily passed both the Senate and House and is expected to be
signed by Kasich soon.

Cincinnati Public Schools says it will
apply for the latest available federal education grants, which amount
to nearly $700 million. The grants are geared toward helping schools
proceed with reform and innovation.

United Nations inspectors have
reportedly found uranium in Iran enriched beyond the highest levels
previously reported. One diplomat said the measure could actually be
a measurement error, though the reading could also mean that Iran is
closer to producing bomb-grade uranium than previously thought.

Scientists might be one step closer to
creating birth control for men after U.K. scientists found a gene
used to enable sperm to mature.

Facebook's initial public offering
didn't go entirely as expected, and some investors are getting
refunds after technical problems and other issues marred the
company's first week of trading.

The Reds completed a four-game sweep of
the Atlanta Braves last night, winning their sixth in a row and
overtaking the St. Louis Cardinal for first place in the NL Central.

]]>

City Council is
considering increasing cab fares prior to the World Choir Games in
July as part of an overhaul of the city’s taxi industry. During a
Rules and Government Operations Committee meeting Monday, Councilman
Wendell Young described the industry as having little regulation and
often undesirable experiences, The Enquirer reports. Council last
spring removed a city rule that made it illegal to hail a cab. Among
the recommendations expected to be made are the standardization of
rates, an increase in the number of permanent taxi stands and the
visible display of a Customer Bill of Rights.

The two men hired to
beat a Columbia Tusculum man over a property dispute admitted in
court yesterday to having been paid by Robert Fritzsch to whoop on
Tom Nies Jr. The beaters will avoid jail time in exchange for
testifying against Fritzsch. The beating was allegedly a retaliation after a court ordered the removal of Fritzsch's addition to his home that blocked the river view of Nies' house.

Robert Chase is a
member of Ohio’s oil and gas commission, in addition to operating a
private consulting firm that deals with many of the private companies
interested in making mass money off the state’s drilling leases.
The Ohio Ethics Commission this week warned Chase that such consulting
work could present a conflict of interest, though Chase says he’s
not surprised and that he knows what his ethical responsibilities
are.

NBC has picked up a
sitcom set in Cincinnati starring Anne Heche, who reportedly plays an
Indian Hill housewife who believes she can channel God after
surviving an accident involving nearly choking on a sandwich (with
humorous results?). The show, which will have a 13-episode first season, is titled Save Me.

The Obama
administration might be hinting at considering same-sex marriage
rights during a second term, but the folks down in North Carolina are
having none of it: A state constitutional amendment to ban gay
marriage and civil unions is on today’s ballot, despite the
existence of a state statute that already outlaws it.

During an event near
Cleveland yesterday, a woman asked Romney if he thinks President
Obama is "operating outside the structure of our Constitution,"
and "should be tried for treason."

Romney did not
respond to the treason comment, but instead criticized Obama's recent
comments on the Supreme Court -- drawing a rebuke from the Obama
campaign.

Romney says he doesn’t
correct all the questions that are asked of him and that he obviously
doesn’t believe Obama should be tried for treason. USA Today
pointed out that the incident is similar to one that occurred during
the 2008 election, which John McCain handled quite differently:

It was one of the
defining moments of the 2008 presidential campaign: A woman at a
rally for Republican John McCain, while asking McCain a question,
called Democratic contender Barack Obama "an Arab" who
couldn't be trusted.

McCain took the
microphone and said, "No ma'am. He's a decent family man ... who
I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues."
McCain's response symbolized his discomfort with the volatile crowds
he was seeing as his campaign faded during the final days of the 2008
race.

City Council on Wednesday
overwhelmingly passed a measure that will offer benefits to domestic
partners of city employees. The measure was introduced by Councilman Chris
Seelbach and passed 8-1, the lone “no” vote coming from Charlie
Winburn. Seelbach told The Enquirer that domestic partner benefits
not only affect same-sex couples, but are also applicable to
non-married partners, which is an added attraction to lure talented
employees to the city. Covington officials passed a similar
measure Tuesday.

If you owe the city of Cincinnati any
parking fines, now would be a good time to pay them. Cincinnati
police are going to start hearing descriptions of vehicles with
multiple outstanding tickets during roll call and then head out to
find them during patrols.

Eric Deters wants to be a real lawyer
again. The attorney/radio personality/cage fighter says his current
predicament — Kentucky law license suspension — is mostly because
someone making the rulings “hates him” and is not due to the “ethical
lapses” that caused his original 61-day suspension. If Deters can't
get the Kentucky Supreme Court to help him out he'll have to go in
front of a Character and Fitness Committee and explain all the crazy
stuff he's done.

New Osama bin Laden documents published
online by the U.S. Government show concern over Muslim distrust of
his organization before he was killed last May, and much of which was due to the high numbers of civilians it was responsible for killing.

It's not very fun to be John Edwards
these days. Already charged with using $1 million in campaign money
to hide a pregnant mistress, testimony in his case for violating
campaign finance laws has revealed that his mistress had a better
idea in response to the National Enquirer's report on the affair: She
wanted to say she was abducted by aliens.

Target is done selling Kindles, and
although it didn't give a reason analysts suspect it is in response
to Amazon's attempts to get retailers who see the products in a store
to then purchase them online. Amazone last holiday season indroduced
a Price Check app that offered in-store price comparisons and up to a
$15 discount online.

Retired NFL linebacker Junior Seau was
found dead at his home yesterday in an apparent suicide. Seau, who
played in the NFL for parts of 20 seasons, was found shot to death.
He was 43.

]]>Cemeteries have officially arrived in the 21st Century. A Crawfordsville, Ind., firm is now using Quick Response barcodes on tombstones. The Allen Monument Co. says the code can connect users to an entire memorial site about a deceased person, provided by Cincinnati-based Making Everlasting Memories. The site can include photos, a biography and other information. All it takes is a simple scan from a smartphone. That's either a brilliant step forward for convenience or a sign of consumerism and technology run amok. You decide.

It looks like charter schools aren't quite the draw that many conservatives believed they would be. Cincinnati Public Schools will lose fewer students than expected next year to private schools and state-funded vouchers, a school official said Tuesday. Only 899 new students applied for new Educational Choice scholarships for the upcoming school year. That’s down from 1,078 applicants from CPS last year and it’s far below the 1,377 students that district officials had estimated to lose this spring.

A Northern Kentucky police chief charged with drunken driving wants to suppress police dashboard camera footage of the traffic stop that led to his arrest. An attorney for Wilder Police Chief Anthony Rouse made the request during a pretrial hearing this week. Rouse is suspended without pay after his March 1 arrest by Alexandria police. We wonder if the Wilder Police Department uses dashboard cams in its cruisers. (What's good for the goose, etc.)

They had better come on strong. The Bengals will be featured on the season opener of Monday Night Footballon ESPN in September. The team will face off against the Ravens in Baltimore. Other highlights of the 2012 schedule, which was released Tuesday, include the Bengals playing their first regular season game in week two against the Cleveland Browns in Cincinnati, and playing divisional foes the Steelers in week 16 at Pittsburgh.

A large swarm of bees has invaded Cincinnati's Covedale neighborhood. Residents on Woodbriar Lane are concerned about thousands of active bees going from yard to yard looking for a place to make a hive. The bees have been doing it for the last couple of days, and residents say they're swarming around different locations, changing locations in as little as 30 minutes in some cases. The buzzing sounds can be heard from 20 feet away or more, they added.

In news elsewhere, friends of Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney insist their pal isn't an android. Romney is a nice guy, they said, adding they are at a loss to explain his stiff demeanor and unusual syntax on the campaign trail. Maybe he's simply trying too hard, some friends told The Washington Post. Yeah, that's it, I'm sure.

Reacting to rising gasoline prices, President Obama proposed new measures this week to reduce oil market manipulation. The proposals, which observers say are unlikely to get support from a divided Congress, include increasing civil and criminal penalties on individuals and companies involved in manipulative practices involving commodities speculation.

In yet another setback for U.S.-Afghan relations, photographs of American troops gleefully posing with corpses of insurgents they've killed were given to The Los Angeles Times. The U.S. soldier who released the photos said he did so to draw attention to the safety risk of a breakdown in leadership and discipline. The Army has started a criminal investigation.

A shadowy conservative group that works behind-the-scenes to push laws that call for stricter voter identification requirements and “stand your ground” initiatives is disbanding its “Public Safety and Elections” task force. The task force, part of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), has been the prime vehicle for proposing and advancing what critics describe as voter-suppression and anti-democratic initiatives, not just restrictive voter ID laws but also plans to limit the ability of citizens to petition for referendums and constitutional changes that favor workers and communities. In recent weeks, numerous of ALEC's corporate members have left then group including Coca-Cola, Intuit and McDonald's.

Thousands of documents detailing crimes committed during the final years of the British empire were systematically destroyed to prevent them falling into the hands of post-independence governments, an official review concluded. Those papers that survived the purge were flown discreetly to Britain where they were hidden for 50 years in a secret Foreign Office archive, beyond the reach of historians and members of the public, and in breach of legal obligations for them to be transferred into the public domain.]]>

O’l girl Leslie Ghiz
is back on local government’s payroll after being hired by Hamilton
County Prosecutor Joe Deters, which will allow her to run in a
judicial race as a badass crime-fighting prosecutor (The
Enquirer’s words, not mine). Deters, of course, is the former
chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party and Ghiz is the
former City Council woman who was voted out last fall and then
decided to move out of Cincinnati.

Tim Burke, head of the
Hamilton County Democratic Party called the move “political as
hell,” while Ghiz had Deters’ spokeswoman explain how Deters’
office is still allowed to hire one more lawyer if it wants to.

Ghiz will earn a
$55,000 salary, down from $60,000 she made in the part-time position
of City Councilperson.

Gov. Kasich is
apparently really proud of the new energy goals he outlined
yesterday, as evidenced by the 15 press releases he's sent to the media since then. Kasich: We have other stuff to write about other
than your thoughts on how cool it is that someone called Ohio “the
Saudi Arabia of coal.”

A mentally disabled
South Carolina man who has been on death row for 30 years could soon
be out of prison for a bond hearing. Edward Lee Elmore’s sentence
has already been overturned three times and reduced from the death
sentence to life in prison. From The Washington Post:

As
other death row inmates were exonerated because of new DNA testing
technology, Elmore’s attorneys asked a judge in 2000 to overturn
his convictions because a blond hair found on Edwards after her death
did not match her or Elmore.

Elmore’s
lawyers thought the blond hair may have belonged to Edwards’
next-door neighbor and they asked a judge to exhume the man’s body
to test his DNA, but a judge denied the request.

It
wasn’t until 2010 that Elmore began to see his fate turn around. A
South Carolina judge ruled he was mentally unfit and could not be
executed, per a 2002 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

State
prosecutors didn’t oppose a judge’s decision to sentence him to
life in prison, and Elmore was, after 28 years, moved from the
state’s death row to another maximum-security prison.

Weather services (and
people know what the sky is supposed to look like) are concerned
about tornadoes in the Midwest today. Most worrisome are extreme
southern Indiana, central Kentucky and north-central Tennessee, with
storms expected across the Gulf Coast states afterward.

Upset about his low pay and dismal working conditions, a worker at one of Facebook’s Third World contractors has leaked the social media site’s ultra-secret document about what type of content it censors.

Amine Derkaoui, a 21-year-old Moroccan man, worked for an outsourcing firm last year that scanned Facebook members’ pages for banned content. Given Facebook’s profitability, Derkaoui became angry about its stinginess with workers.

Some of the forbidden items are obvious like racial slurs, depictions of human or animal mutilation, photographs or cartoons of sexual activity, violent speech and content that organizes or promotes illegal activity.

But some of the other verboten items are more unusual, if not downright strange.

Also, most depictions of bodily fluids are unacceptable, but not all. It lists “urine, feces, vomit, semen, pus and ear wax" as unacceptable (yes, ear wax). But, it helpfully notes, “cartoon feces, urine and spit are OK; real and cartoon snot is OK.” Well, that's good to know.

Other items subject to deletion include cartoon nudity, images of internal organs, bones, muscles, tendons and “deep flesh wounds,” along with “blatant (obvious) depiction of camel toes and moose knuckles.” (Confession: I had to Google “moose knuckle” to know what that meant.)

Images of “crushed heads, limbs, etc. are OK,” however, as long as “no insides are showing” and the person posting them doesn’t express delight or gratification.

Moreover, all criticism of Ataturk, the founder of the nation of Turkey, along with images depicting the burning of Turkish flags are forbidden. It’s believed this restriction is due to certain European laws that, if violated, could cause the site to be blocked in Turkey.

The 17-page manual includes a one-page “cheat sheet” so workers can quickly reference it when making decisions about what to delete.

Gawker said Derkaoui found his job through the outsourcing firm oDesk, which provides content moderation services for Facebook and Google. About 50 people across the globe — mostly in Turkey, the Philippines, Mexico and India — work to moderate Facebook content. They work from home in four-hour shifts and earn $1 per hour plus commissions.

"It's humiliating. They are just exploiting the Third World," Derkaoui told Gawker.

]]>

You poison one little
French farmer and all hell breaks loose. Giant chemical-maker
Monsanto yesterday announced it plans to appeal a Monday ruling that one
of its herbicides in 2004 poisoned French farmer Paul Francois, who
says inhaling a Monsanto weedkiller led to “memory loss, headaches
and stammering”(coincidentally, these are the same symptoms of the
accidental hangover™).

In addition to the French
farmer being pissed enough at the company for giving him a hangover
when he was trying to work his farmland, there are about a million
other people officially declaring themselves as against Monsanto via
“Millions Against Monsanto,” an organic consumers association
that campaigns for “health, justice, sustainability, peace and
democracy.” If you accept the possibility of Monsanto obstructing
even a majority of these five concepts, it’s easy to believe the
company has enemies from a lot of different backgrounds.

That’s why Monday’s
ruling by a French court finding Monsanto legally responsible for
poisoning Francois and ordering it to compensate him has enlivened a
bunch of angry activists.

Millions Against
Monsanto offers a wealth of content documenting the agricultural
biotechnology corporation’s government ties, tendencies to take
small dairies to court, refusal to compensate veterans for Agent
Orange and getting their nasty chemicals in normal people’s water
supplies. (Wikipedia is hilariously filled with references to things like dumping toxic waste in the UK, Indonesian bribing convictions and fines for false advertising.) Even 'ol boy Obama has gotten caught up in the mix with
charts like this one circulating on Facebook:

The latest news out of
Millions Against Monsanto is the moving forward of a California ballot initiative to
require mandatory GMO labeling that polls show has 80 percent
support. According to the site:

"A win for the California
Initiative would be a huge blow to biotech and a huge victory for
food activists. Monsanto and their minions have billions invested in
GMOs and they are willing to spend millions to defeat this
initiative. California is the 8th largest economy in the world.
Labeling laws in CA will affect packaging and ingredient decisions
nation-wide. The bill has been carefully written to ensure that it
will not increase costs to consumers or producers."

Back in France, our
friendly farmer will have to wait a while for whatever compensation
poisoning amounts to, as Monsanto says it will appeal the ruling.
According to The Washington Post: Monsanto spokesman Tom Helscher
says the company does not think there is “sufficient data” to
demonstrate a link between the use of Lasso herbicide and the
symptoms Francois reported.

"We do not agree any
injury was accidentally caused nor did the company intentionally
permit injury," Helscher said. "Lasso herbicide was ... successfully used by farmers
on millions of hectares around the world."

]]>Last week I blogged about SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, a bill being proposed in Congress that, if passed, would allow both copyright holders as well as the US Department of Justice to severely restrict access to and advertising on any website accused of facilitating copyright infringement. Needless to say the bill’s sparked a huge controversy on the web. Many sites such as Reddit.com blacked out their services on Jan. 18 in protest, and those against the bill are saying the bill inhibits free speech and will effectively “ruin the Internet” if passed.---

But I already talked about that all in my last blog. This
week I wanted to cover another subject related to SOPA; namely, online piracy.

It’s obviously become a big problem, or else Congress wouldn’t
have bothered proposing a bill as extreme as SOPA in the first place. And I can
certainly understand why media companies are rallying in support of it. Every
time a TV show, song, movie or video game is either streamed or downloaded
illegally, they’re losing money.

But why do people pirate in the first place? The most
obvious answer is to save money. Hell, why pay for something you can get for
free, even if it means bending the rules? However, as an avid gamer and
internet users…I know for a fact there are other reasons gamers such as myself
might be tempted to pirate as well.

I personally love old-school video games.I grew up in the era of Super Nintendo and
Sega Genesis. And I still think some of the best games ever made exist for
those consoles. The problem is, these days you’d probably be hard pressed to
find a Snes for sale in your average game or toy store. It’s old
technology.There’s no money in it
anymore.

Any games made before the era of Sony’s Playstation 2,
Microsoft’s Xbox or Nintendo’s Gamecube are becoming increasingly hard to
find. And even those are getting out of date with the newer consoles nearing on
five or six years since their release.I
wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a whole slew of ‘next-gen’ consoles within the
next year.

So what’s all this got to do with online piracy?
Simple: It’s pretty much impossible to find old video games anywhere but online
these days. There’s myriad sites out there dedicated to
‘emulation’…or, to put it in layman’s terms, the distribution of programs that
will allow you toplay video games on
your computer.

Given, there’s absolutely no excuse for the pirating of more
recently released games. But in the case of some of the older games from the
1990s, and even the early 2000s, emulation’s pretty much the only option.Companies aren’t distributing these games
anymore. The only alternative to pirating is trolling antique shops and the
inventories of game collectors - and even then it’s a shot in the dark. Even if
you find the game you’re looking for, you’d better be willing to pay an
outrageous price for it. Hard copies of Earthbound,
a popular role-playing game for the Super Nintendo, can go for over $100. And
it’s not the only one, I assure you.

Fortunately, Nintendo, at the very least, seems to be
sympathetic to the plight of a gamer seeking to relive the nostalgia of
older-era games. Owners of the Wii can download older games to play using the
‘Virtual Console’ feature, given they’re willing to pay (typically $5-$20
depending on the game). It’s a nice feature, but the inventory’s still quite
limited. Popular games like Super Mario
World and The Legend of Zelda are
easy to find, but several more obscure titles remain unavailable.

Unfortunate as it is, emulation is the easiest and cheapest
method for a gamer looking to find and play older games. Unless you’ve held on
to your old consoles and copies, you’re pretty much out of luck. Stores have
begun to stop stocking games for consoles even as recent as the Playstation 2
and Xbox. As I mentioned before, companies no longer care to distribute new
copies - there’s simply not enough of a market for it.

And admittedly, it is a small market. But not small enough
to stop gamers from pirating hacked copies to play on their computer. It may
not be the main concern of the organizations dedicated to stopping piracy, but
with SOPA and other similar bills being proposed and voted on, it probably
won’t be long before sites dedicated to video game emulation are targeted as
well.

]]>

Anyone who
knows me well can tell you that I'm a total Internet junkie. I spend a lot of
my free time online, browsing various sites like Youtube, chatting in forums
with friends and otherwise killing time. As of late, though, one
particular subject seems to have pushed itself into the forefront of internet
denizens everywhere. That is, SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, a censorship
bill which was proposed by the US House of Representatives on Oct. 26, 2011.
It's created quite a buzz online, and with all the people talking about it and
what it supposedly proposes, it's hard to get one's facts straight. Friends of
mine claim that the government's trying to censor the internet, block access to
certain sites - that SOPA will cripple the World Wide Web as we know it.---

Reddit.com
has even proposed a rally against the bill, encouraging sites to black out
their services today in protest. Several other web services and sites
have joined, even Internet giants such as Google and Wikipedia have joined the protest. Either way, SOPA's causing a big stir online.But what does it actually propose? Is all the
protest warranted? I decided to do a little research into the bill myself. I
looked up the bill on Wikipedia in order to read about what it was proposing,
in layman’s terms.

In a
nutshell, if passed, SOPA would allow both copyright holders and the US
Department of Justice to seek court orders against websites either accused of
enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on the order,
several actions could be taken against the accused website, including barring
advertisement, barring search engines from linking to the site, and requesting
that Internet providers block access to such sites. The bill would also make
unauthorized streaming of copyrighted media a crime punishable by prison
sentences.

Those
supporting the bill claim it will protect artists' intellectual property,
reduce illegal pirating of media and help bolster copyright laws against
foreign websites. Those against argue that SOPA violates free speech, will
threaten whistle-blowing and otherwise effectively debilitate the web as we know
it.

So who's in
the right? There's no question that pirating is a major problem these days. There
are thousands of websites out there dedicated to the illegal downloading and
streaming of copyrighted material.

On the other
hand, SOPA doesn't just target these sites in general, but also those accused
of "facilitating" said sites. How is this going to affect my internet browsing?
Is SOPA going to bar my access to websites I frequent on a daily basis?Just how far does the policy of free use
extend to the internet?

Bottom line,
there are still too many "what ifs" for me to support such a bill. I prefer my
internet uncensored and would appreciate it if things stayed that way.

]]>

Ohio voter advocates say there was a
big elephant in the room during the creation of Ohio's controversial
redistricting map, and it was super tan and cried a lot. The Ohio
Campaign for Accountable Redistricting says John Boehner was central
in the process, working with map-making consultants and the National
Republican Congressional Committee. Here's a link to the Ohio
Redistricting Transparency Report. From The Enquirer:

"The report found: decisions were not
made in public; public input was ignored; there was limited
opportunity for the public to review proposed maps; the public was
not provided with relevant data for proposed districts; nonpartisan
redistricting criteria were not used; and the criteria used to
evaluate plans were never publicly identified."---

Despite the economic troubles affecting
the state, Ohioans are smoking more than ever, according to a study
that found the highest percentage point increase of any state. An
official with the Ohio Department of Health attributes the increase
to the stress people are under, though the Ohio General Assembly also
cut funding to the state's smoking cessation help line, so there's
that. Ohio ranked as the 36th healthiest state in 2011, down from 33
rd in 2010, while Indiana came in at 38th and Kentucky 43rd.---

Most Hamilton County residents will pay
considerably more for water and sewers next year when a 7.5 percent
rate increase goes into effect. The increase will be $73 per year,
slightly more than the property tax rollback savings for the owner of
a $100,000 home.

Covington leaders are looking for
development ideas for the city's property between the Roebling
Suspension Bridge and Madison Avenue. They say they're open to
private and/or public development, so long as it is pedestrian
friendly with some greenspace.

Occupy D.C. protesters built
some type of structure in a park Saturday night, and police on Sunday
notified them that they didn't have a permit and took it down,
arresting dozens in the process. It was a pretty nice structure,
though.---

City Council will begin discussing City
Manager Milton Dohoney's 2012 budget today, and it's expected to be
fairly smooth since there are no proposed layoffs, or closings of
health clinics, rec centers or school nurses.

A new study has found high levels of
arsenic in fruit juices that millions of kids are drinking because
there's pictures of actual food on the label. Too bad government
regulation is just a big waste of money that hurts the economy.

A full 10 percent of the juices tested by the magazine had
arsenic levels higher than what is allowed in water by the Food and
Drug Administration.

“What we’re talking about here is not acute affects,”
Urvashi Rangan, director of safety and sustainability at Consumer
Reports, told TODAY. “We’re talking about chronic effects. We’re
talking about cancer risk. And so, the fact that 10 percent of our
samples exceeded the drinking water standard underscores the need for
a standard to be set in juices.”

Consumer Reports tested 88 samples of apple and grape juices sold around
the country. Included among those tested were popular juices like
Minute Maid, Welch’s and Tropicana.---

Details of the Southgate House's pending close are coming out, with a sibling
court battle at the center of the controversy. Then Enquirer spoke to
Armina Lee, who is the sister of Ross Raleigh, the man who had run the
club for three decades. Lee and her husband reportedly bought Raleigh
out of the building and plan to renovate and sell it. Raleigh has
said he plans to find a new club and continue booking music. It is
unclear which party will own the rights to the Southgate House name.

Meanwhile, over in Cincinnati, Mayor
Mallory says he doesn't know why Chiquita chose North Carolina after
Cincinnati offered it “$40 billion to stay.” The mayor is funny.

U.S. companies added more than 200,000
new jobs in November. “Things are getting better for the economy,”
said Robert Brusca, chief economist at Fact & Opinion Economics
in New York. “It means the news we have on Christmas shopping and
on an increase in consumer confidence may have some validity.”

]]>The Hamilton County Commissioners'
stadium funding failures have caused County Auditor Dusty
Rhodes to describe a “dream world” where politicians think their
inaction doesn't affect anybody. Today's news that the stadium fund
will be bankrupt by March without additional funding has not deterred
Republican Chris Monzel and Democrat Todd Portune from giving
property owners the tax credit that convinced them to vote for the
1996 sales tax increase.

"It would be the height of irresponsibly to commit funds they
knew were not there," Rhodes said. "I've long criticized
various governments for living in dream world.

"This takes it to a whole new level," Rhodes said.---

Things aren't much better over at the
congressional supercommittee, which former Treasury Secretary Paul
O'Neill has described as disastrous.

"If anybody understands the
consequences of the failure of the committee of 12, they're
horrendous," O'Neill said. "It's basically the consequences
of an institution that's found itself unwilling to set priorities,
which is what we elected them to do."

UC-Davis students have set up an Occupy
camp on school grounds in response to university police casually
spraying protesters with pepper spray after Chancellor Linda Katehi
requested that they be removed. Now the chancellor is asking the DEA
to investigate the department's use of force.

Yancy Gates on the attendance of 4,505:
“I guess when Big East play starts, they’ll come to see the other
team. It’s their money. They can spend it like they want to.”

Mick Cronin on the embarrassment of
losing to Presbyterian on Sunday: “I have slept four hours in two
days. I have taken more stomach pills in four days that they might
have to pump my stomach. I haven’t left my house. I’m embarrassed
to stop and get coffee.”

]]>

Cincinnati police didn't give out any
citations in Piatt Park last night, saving the people
in the Justice Center a lot of paperwork and wasted time. Some
occupiers and local homeless activists have planned a march on
Saturday to highlight causes of homelessness.

New York officials delayed a monthly
park cleaning that would have meant having to clean lots of protesters too. The
movement is spreading to Canada, where occupy protests are scheduled
to begin this weekend in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary,
Vancouver and Halifax.---

Do you think America's many problems
would be best solved by “simple solutions and a leader willing to
say 'I don't know'?” Vote Herman Cain! Also, even business groups
are calling Cain's horseshit 9-9-9 plan a “jobs killer.”

Americans are cool: U.S. retail sales
rose more than expected in September as Americans spent more on cars,
clothing and fuel, an indication that consumers remain willing to
shop despite high unemployment and a weak recovery.

Meanwhile, in Texas... Rick Perry's
wife says poor Ricky was "brutalized and beaten up and chewed
up" by the presidential campaign last month. Ricky nods his head
in agreement.

Materialistic couples have more trouble
than couples who don't care much about possessions. Ha.

Years of previous research have turned
up compelling evidence that materialism isn't great for anybody,
Carroll said. Multiple studies have found that people who are
materialistic are also more anxious, depressed, and insecure than
non-materialistic types. A stronger love of money has also been
linked to trouble at home, as these individuals tend not to balance
family evenly with work.

BlackBerry's recent outage is a threat
to the brand, causing people who knew it was still a brand to wonder
why, how.

]]>

Occupy Cincinnati protesters lined up
for more citations last night at Piatt Park, with more than 20 occupiers receiving tickets while more
protesters stood outside the park, protesting in un-ticketable
fashion. There are now about 15 tents in the park.

Hank Williams Jr. has written a song
about Fox & Friends and Monday Night Football being mean to him.
Not sure how much credibility writing a song on one day, recording it
the next and then releasing it the following day shows for his
songwriting process or the production value of country music, but
whatever.

More than 20 Occupy Cincinnati
protesters last night received citations for staying at Piatt Park after its official closing time, a process which included warnings by police and then some peaceful ticketing before police left the occupiers to their business. CityBeat has launched a page dedicated to our ongoing coverage of the protests, including a live feed of #occupycincinnati and #occupycincy hashtags. ---

The New York Times explains how the
Occupy Wall Street movement has spurred dialogue over
economic inequality despite how many conservatives call its
individuals childish things. Here's an interesting report on how the 99 percent movement has intrigued religious scholars, some of
whom are comparing the social justice dimensions to those of many
religions.

Jump to the bottom of the page for a
thoughtful explanation of the movement by former Democratic Rep. Alan
Grayson, standing up to some mope named P.J. O'Rourke on Real Time
with Bill Maher.

When County Commissioners find a little
extra money, they apparently believe it best to send it on over to the
the sheriff's, prosecutor's and public defender's offices rather than
Jobs and Family Services so the police can better patrol and
prosecute people who don't have jobs or family resources and then do
crazy things.

Those proposed public- safety
increases come at the expense of Job and Family Services, which is
slated to get $843,260 in 2012 — a 26.6 percent decrease. It's the
largest percentage cut of any department.

The AP reports that
Gov. John Kasich is “literally” barnstorming in support of SB 5
while describing no literal storming of barns, just one of the term's
many definitions, this one meaning traveling around the country
making political speeches. He's arguing in favor of performance-based
pay for teachers, assuming those who navigate the murky methods of teacher evaluation and the questionable legitimacy of standardized texts deserve more money.

Republican
presidential candidates are reportedly distancing themselves from a
Dallas Baptist pastor's thoughts about Mormonism (considered a
cult by the mainstream of Christianity).
Perry is breaking out the 'ol flip-flop label. 2012 is going to rule.

Two Americans have
won the Nobel prize in economics for explaining some of the ways
government policy affects the economy. Probably had plenty of data on
the subject after 2008.